Get It Now Roving Pack Scripted By Sassafras Lowrey Available As Bound Copy

book, I'm so glad it exists as a time capsule forlivejournal, the voice, editing and publishing were rough.
Rainbow Awards Honorable Mentionfrom at leastjudge I borrowed this book from Gender Community Lending Library,

It's strange to read this book inand as part of a very different community to the protagonist Click's, because in many ways the talking points in this book have been appropriated by arch conservatives.
Pre 'tipping point' literature tends to read this way, and can sometimes feel overwhelmingly dated, With that in mind, I tried to keep an open mind while reading 'Roving Pack', approaching it on its own terms, and was impressed by the story's nuance and honesty.
Some ideas may feel awkward in a modern context, For example, the book implied that Click was effectively 'transitioned too quickly' because of a controlling trans community and an abusive relationship a talking point it shares with 'Irreversible Damage'!

However, the core dynamics are evergreen.
Readers have described the book as a story about peer pressure, I think it's more about the complex interplay of an infinite number of factors present in queer social circles: peer pressure, patriarchy, the odd and sometimes counterintuitive power dynamics that arise as twisted reflections of patriarchy, abusive relationships, the new adult tendency to think in black and white, the craving for consistency that comes from trauma.
. . Nothing about Click's life is particularly similar to my own, I'm a nice middle class man from England, But I could easily recognise these forces because, as they do for Click, they shaped my world at age nineteen.


There's a lot here, and it's more than worth a read,

Weirdly, I can't stop thinking how it would do great in a transmasc reading circle or grassroots summer school with Carla Pfeffer's Queering Families.
Someone make this happen! A sad but fascinating telling of a young persons complex introduction to queer life, alternative lifestyles, dating, and gender exploration.
I do wish there were more details about the setting and the characters, especially for those of us who have never been in this particular type of queer environment.
I also think the writing could have been edited and polished a bit more, And lastly, I felt that the ending was too abrupt and did not wrap up the story very well, But overall a good and interesting read, Awesome real, addicting queer read, First time I've read a book about being queer that felt REAL, I loved this book and highly recommend it I have it for any local friends that want to borrow it! Rough around the edges in the very, absolute best way.
The conversational, epistolary form shines here, and the process of reading through Clicks entries quickly becomes inseparable from Clicks own becomingtrans.
Lowrey does an incredible job navigating the relationship between kink, sexuality, and gendercrossing, and in doing so spotlights the lives of non“respectable” queers, with moments both funny and heartbreaking.


Its also an incredible peak into the west coast queer scene in the early aughts!!! I can think of no higher praise for this book than this: when

it was done, I didn't want it to be.
Click is going to stay with me for a while, Powerful novel about what gender fluidity looks and feels like, something that is sorely lacking in most of the other work about trans and genderqueer youth.
Get this book immediately. HIGHLY recommended. After Id read the last line of Roving Pack, I turned the page expectantly, I wanted more. I doublechecked to make sure I hadnt flipped two pages instead of one, I read the last paragraph again, then another time, I sat with it. It sat with me.

I feel a lot of empathy for Clicks situation, Being genderqueer is similar to being trans, some of us even embrace trans as part of our identity, We often find kinship and camaraderie among trans folks, We can relate to feelings of gender dysphoria and the pain of not being seen for who we really are.
However, for those of us who are gender nonbinary, what we dont have is a clear path to a wellrecognized gender destination.
There isnt a sense of moving from point A to point B, because male and female are not necessarily our starting or endpoint.
In following Clicks story, the day to day reality of being nonbinary in a binary world is laid out in very stark terms.
It isnt just a matter of not being understood, sometimes people dont believe you, they think youre fooling yourself, not finding yourself.
Roving Pack doesnt shy away from some really ugly moments where the trans community is revealed as not as accepting of gender fluidity as one would hope.
Ive experienced this first hand, with trans guys assuming that genderqueer is just a temporary stop between female and male, and that eventually Id figure it out and get serious about transitioning.
Listening in as Click works through what genderqueer means to hir, what it means to be nonbinary, begins to see how much bigger gender could be and questions whether T is right for hir it all feels so familiar.
These are the same questions Ive asked myself, with similar results,

We have great stories and blogs featuring the trans narrative but we dont have the same body of work for genderqueers, or for alternative, nonbinary trans stories.
Reading Roving Pack made me hungry for more, I want to reach out and gather all those untold stories up in my arms and find a comfy chair.
Im also very aware that I also have a story to tell, and that no one else will tell it if I dont.
I feel not only inspired but called, called to make sure more genderqueer voices are heard, including mine,

Roving Pack is a great story, but not a pretty one, The reality of life for Click and the pack and the greater queer punk trans community was not pretty, At times I needed to put the book down, to take a break, to breathe a little, I wanted desperately to jump into the story, to pull Click aside and say, Hold off, man, not this one you deserve better” but you know that wouldnt have worked.
Not for any of us, Weve all made choices that didnt work out, hooked up with people and situations we regretted later, and we werent going to take advice from any oldfart knowitalls.
If were lucky, we survive our choices, learn from those experiences, and move on to make better ones,

Roving Pack is good and I predict youll get hooked hard in the first couple of pages, As a reader, youre given a front row seat into a life rich with possibilities and rife with painful challenges.
Page by page, youre pulled along at a fast pace good luck keeping track of whos with who, and who is the exe, and which Daddy is with which boy at any given moment.
Roving Pack is good because it doesnt candycoat, it doesnt hold back to protect delicate sensibilities, it doesnt gloss things over or cover up the hard times with the rosy glow of memory.
This is no sweet coming of age story, this is the real shit, Sassafras Lowrey takes us right back to that raw, impulsive, embarrassing, triumphant, everchanging time of our lives when we were busy figuring it all out and pretty sure wed do a better job of it than any of the old fart boring adults we saw around us.
This is a story about those moments when the idealism of youth clashes with the ugly truth of life and our real selves are born.
Roving Pack is sweet and beautiful and bloody and visceral, I wanted it to go on so much longer, I wanted more because I wanted to see Click have that happy ending ze deserved, But if Roving Pack teaches us nothing else it's that not all of us have happy endings, We just have to do the best we can with the story beforehand, This is a book about growth and journey and self understanding and acceptance, It's about chosen family and the friends we'd kill and die for, And it's about what happens when we realize their love and acceptance has limitations and expectations, It explores peer pressure within subcultures and the pressure to be who everyone else thinks you are,

I loved the open and natural talk of leather and kink and how much more it made me understand gender, sex, and presentation.
I loved the fact that it was a mix of public blog posts and private journal entries and seeing how much they could differ.
Initially I worried that the book being in blog and journal entries would bother me but all it did was make me feel so much closer to Click than I ever could have otherwise.
Click survives chaos and violence and lays hirself open, vulnerable, and bare,

I know that Roving Pack is partially a memoir and I cried when I read the acknowledgments, Because you know what Click did get that happy ending after all, I dont know whether its a mark of a good or bad book when it finishes and you blink at the page and go youre just going to stop it there! but I suppose its a sign that its a not a book that you can just take or leave.
You either love it or hate it like Marmite, I cant decide which camp I fall into,

I started reading this book in a coffee shop and then promptly didnt move for an hour and a half apart from to drink my tea.
Then I realised the stink eyes I was getting from the staff for taking up a table and went home and finished the book.
It was interesting and just as I was thinking I could put it down, it sucked me back in, The characters drove this story one hundred percent, The main plot was a bit up in the air, Click is trying to fit in with the pack Click is leading the pack But I liked it anyway.
The number of different people that Click encountered was astounding but I never forgot who someone was and who they were to Click.


Oh Click. Sometimes you make really bad decisions and if I was your sister/friend/roommate, I would point out that what youre doing is only going to hurt in the long run but I knew you wouldnt listen.


Clicks want to be in a relationship and be taken care of was endearing and heartbreaking at the same time.
It led hir into a bad relationship with Hunter I wanted to punch him in the face so badly, never mind that hes a fictional character and to a previous bad relationship with James who also sounds horrible.
Clicks relationship in general sound quite negative a lot of the time dont me started on hir biological family and even people ze trusted ended up letting hir down.


I admit, Im probably letting the ending of the book colour my view, What happens is that Click starts to transition with T mostly because Hunter thinks that Click isnt really trans because ze doesnt want to transition.
And then Click starts to get to know hirself a bit better and realise that ze wants to stop T and then gets a lot of hate from the community because ze isnt really trans because of this apparently.


And then the book ended! After everyone had been huge dickheads by saying Click how ze should identify and saying they werent going to talk to hir anymore, the book stopped!

I want to smack my head against the wall.
I know this is probably very realistic for people who are gender fluid, especially genderqueer teenagers, to not only face transphobia from cisgender people but also from the trans community as well and in life there are no happy, perfect endings, but I just wanted Click to have one friend that was fine with everything.


I also want to slap many people in the novel around the face but thats not going to happen.


Four because it was a thoroughly enjoyable book but the ending left me more than a little annoyed.
.